LAPD impound policy confusing to officers

Controversial new rules that limit when Los Angeles police officers can impound the vehicles of unlicensed drivers have left officers confused and contributed to a dramatic drop in the number of seized vehicles, the Los Angeles Police Department reported Tuesday.

Last year, police impounded 19,944 vehicles, a 39% decline compared with 2011, Deputy Chief Michael Downing said during a meeting of the Police Commission, the board that oversees the LAPD.

One reason for the tumble, Downing said, was Special Order 7--the new policy LAPD Chief Charlie Beck pushed through early last year. Under it, officers were instructed to continue with impounds, but ordered not to place onerous 30-day holds on vehicles if an unlicensed driver met several requirements -- including having auto insurance, valid identification and no previous citations for unlicensed driving.

Instead of the month-long impounds, which often come with fees and fines that exceed $1,200, officers were told to use a less-harsh part of the state’s vehicle code when impounding vehicles that allows owners to collect vehicles immediately from impound lots. And, officers were told to forgo impounding a vehicle altogether in cases in which a licensed driver is in the car or able to arrive “immediately.”

Beck and commissioners billed the changes as a fairness issue for illegal immigrants, who are widely presumed to make up the bulk of unlicensed drivers in California since state law forbids them from being issued licenses.

The old policy, Beck said at the time, was too vague and gave officers little direction on whether to impound a vehicle and, if they opted to do so, if they should impose the 30-day hold.

Downing, however, said Tuesday that officer confusion has persisted with the new impound rules and when to invoke the month-long impound. Not wanting to improperly use the more serious impound, officers “tend to default” to the more lenient type, Downing said. As a result, the overall decline in impounds is due almost entirely to a drop in 30-day holds, according to department figures. Similar changes to the impound rules at drunk-driving checkpoints have also contributed to the decline, Downing added.

LAPD officers use CPR to save choking woman

Two Los Angeles police officers helped to save the life of a woman who was choking at a Woodland Hills pizza restaurant, administering CPR until paramedics arrived, officials said Sunday.

Officers Paul Maldonado and Kurt Logan were flagged down by an employee of the pizza shop in the 6200 block of Topanga Canyon Boulevard about 1:30 p.m. Saturday and found the 75-year-old woman lying unconscious on the floor, police said.

“When we walked in, I saw her on the floor to the rear of the restaurant and immediately started CPR,” Maldonado, a former reserve fireman, said in a statement. “Within minutes, we were able to get a pulse.”

According to Logan: “I could see something lodged inside the woman’s throat and tried to position her head to clear the object, while my partner did chest compressions until the paramedics arrived.”

Paramedics took the woman to a local hospital, where she was able to breathe on her own.

“Sometimes, our officers are presented with a situation where immediate and decisive action must be taken to save lives,” said LAPD Topanga area Capt. Thomas P. Brascia. “Their response was extraordinary, and as a result, a life was saved.”

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Three teens hurt, one critically, in apparent drive-by shooting

A teenage boy was in critical condition Sunday and two others were injured after what appeared to be a drive-by shooting in the Vermont Square neighborhood of South Los Angeles, authorities said.

The shooting occurred about 9:30 p.m. Saturday near the intersection of 53rd and Figueroa Streets, said Lt. Julie Patton, of the Los Angeles Police Department.

The victims included two 15-year-olds and one 17-year-old. One was taken to Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, while the others were taken to California Hospital Medical Center in downtown Los Angeles.

No other information was given.

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Occidental College defends response to reported sexual assault

Occidental College officials are defending the school’s response to an alleged sexual assault last weekend near campus.

School officials did not issue a campus alert because it was determined there was no “continuing threat” following the report, Barbara J. Avery, dean of students, wrote in an email sent Thursday to students, faculty and staff.

Authorities said a police investigation began when a female Occidental student “went to get medical treatment on her own regarding the sexual assault,” said Richard French, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesman.

The alleged assault was reported to have happened early Sunday at a party off campus, French said. Partygoers were intoxicated, he said.  

Detectives have a suspect, though that person was not yet in custody, French said.

In her email, Avery said the reported assault involved two students.

“Had this been a case where a student was assaulted by a person unknown, or a case where the college determined that there was a continuing threat, we would have immediately issued a campus alert, as we have in the past,” Avery wrote. “This case, while very serious, was determined not to constitute a continuing threat.”

Avery said that because the case involved two students, “federal privacy laws and Department of Education rules apply.” The college, she wrote, “has an obligation to conduct a thorough, impartial and prompt investigation and take appropriation.”

The college’s investigation, separate from the LAPD investigation, is ongoing, she wrote.

Occidental College, she wrote, “will not tolerate sexual misconduct.”

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twitter.com/haileybranson

41 arrested in oxycodone raids in L.A., Washington state

More than 40 people were arrested Thursday in Southern California and Washington state as federal agents and local police executed dozens of search warrants in a massive probe into the illegal trade of the narcotic oxycodone hydrochloride.

In early morning raids, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Los Angeles Police Department, working with the Spokane Regional Drug Task Force, targeted what authorities described as a criminal  organization that funneled large quantities of the prescription medication illegally across the West Coast.

The move comes as the nation experiences a jump in deaths due to prescription overdoses.

A 32-count federal indictment handed down in Washington in January charged most of those arrested with a variety of crimes, including distribution, possession and attempted possession of oxycodone hydrochloride -- the generic version of the brand name drug OxyContin -- in violation of the Federal Controlled Substances Act.

LAPD officers pull woman from burning tent on skid row sidewalk

A Los Angeles police officer sustained minor burns early Thursday after rescuing a woman whose sidewalk tent caught fire in the skid row area of downtown Los Angeles.

The incident was reported by LAPD officers with the Safer Cities Initiative task force who were patrolling around 3 a.m. near the intersection of 5th Street and Towne Avenue.

Officer Kyle Rice, Officer Martin Garcia and Sgt. Mike Bautista stopped when they noticed that the tent was on fire and the silhouette of someone apparently sleeping on the floor of the tent, authorities said. They woke up a woman inside, who began to get dressed.

As flames began to spread, the officers became fearful for the woman's safety so they reached into the tent and pulled her out, authorities said. As she was being removed, there was a minor explosion and the tent was consumed in flames.

The woman, who was not immediately identified, suffered minor burns to her face but she refused treatment. Los Angeles firefighters extinguished the blaze, and their investigation determined that a candle in the tent caused it. The explosion was the result of a battery that caught on fire. 

Rice suffered minor burns to his arm and face, as well as effects of smoke inhalation.

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Photo: A tent burns in the skid row area of downtown Los Angeles on Thursday. Credit: Los Angeles Police Department

L.A. asks U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on skid row injunction

Citing an immediate public health threat, the city of Los Angeles will ask the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday to overturn a lower court ruling preventing the random seizure and destruction of belongings that homeless people leave temporarily unattended on public sidewalks.

If the court takes up the matter, the case could have broad implications for cities nationwide grappling with how to keep streets clean and safe while respecting the property rights of those who live there.

The Supreme Court filing comes after two years of legal wrangling between Los Angeles officials and homeless advocates over a controversial campaign to clean up downtown’s skid row, which has the highest concentration of homeless people in the city.

“We have an obligation to the homeless, as well as to the other residents and businesses on skid row, to ensure their health through regularly cleaning skid row’s streets and sidewalks,” City Atty. Carmen Trutanich said in a statement. “The current outbreak of tuberculosis among that most vulnerable population should serve as a stern reminder to us all of just who and what is at risk in this matter.”

Carol Sobel, who represents the homeless plaintiffs in the case, said the outbreak, which has infected nearly 80 people and killed 11, has nothing to do with the property left on the streets. She accused city officials of deliberately allowing conditions to deteriorate in order to bolster their case, saying: “They have a public health issue of their making.”

The dispute began when eight homeless people accused city workers, accompanied by police, of seizing and destroying property they left unattended while they used a restroom, filled water jugs or appeared in court. The men and a woman had left their possessions -- including identification documents, medications, cellphones and toiletries -- in carts provided by social service groups and in some cases were prevented from retrieving them, Sobel said.

In a 2-1 decision in September, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the belongings that homeless people leave on city sidewalks for a short period of time may be taken only if the possessions pose an immediate threat to public health or safety or constitute evidence of a crime. In such cases, the court said, the city may not summarily destroy the possessions and must notify the owners where they can collect them.

City attorneys question whether the 4th Amendment protection from unlawful seizures and the 14th Amendment guarantee of due process extend to people who violate a city ordinance requiring them to remove their possessions during posted cleanup times, especially when free storage is available at a warehouse operated by a local business improvement district.

They say the decision, which upheld an injunction against Los Angeles, has created a “public health disaster.” Homeless residents are leaving piles of possessions on the ground or in overflowing shopping carts, often covered by tarps and blankets, and sometimes with a note attached saying “not abandoned” or “mine,” according to a draft of the filing reviewed by The Times.

Although it may be a long shot,  Stan Goldman, a Loyola Law School professor, said the Supreme Court could decide to weigh in on how to strike the balance between a city's responsibility to promote public safety and its obligation to respect the rights of the homeless.

“It is true that you can’t just search the belongings of anyone who is just walking down the street or sitting on the sidewalk,” Goldman said. “But on the other hand, for generations, the court has given the government broad leeway to use its powers to search and seize in non-criminal cases, when there is a reasonable belief there is a hazard or threat to public safety. That applies to wiring in buildings, quarantining people who have communicable diseases or even hoarders accumulating piles of garbage in their backyards.”

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Photo: Homeless people amid trash strewn on skid row. Credit: Los Angeles Times/Mark Boster

L.A. Votes: Special interests spend millions, Greuel and James on the attack

Nearly $4 million in independent spending has poured into Los Angeles election campaigns in recent weeks. A Times analysis finds that more than three-quarters comes from groups tied to unions, and that, in addition to efforts on behalf of mayoral candidate Wendy Greuel, a significant amount is being spent on City Council races as unions look to strengthen their influence at City Hall.

Greuel’s time working for former Mayor Tom Bradley  is the latest in a series of Times’ profiles of turning points in the mayoral candidates’ lives. And the city controller released a radio attack ad against Eric Garcetti, the first candidate-sanctioned negative ad of the mayoral contest and a sign of how testy the race has become in the closing days.

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Garcetti, who spent Tuesday night campaigning with Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker, has an interest in untapped oil and gas leases that could draw on controversial deposits beneath Beverly Hills High School. While the Garcetti property has not been used for slant drilling to access the reserves and currently pays the councilman a nominal $1.25 per year, such drilling could be handsomely profitable if it occurs.

Kevin James took aim at both Garcetti and Greuel in an eye-popping web video that shows look-alikes of the elected officials burying a body in a woody, shallow grave as a comparison to their work as elected officials. And Emanuel Pleitez will literally run across the city –- 100 miles over six days –- as part of an effort to promote his long shot bid.

As the last fund-raising period before the election closes at midnight Wednesday, the candidates are scrambling to raise money. James is the beneficiary of a fund-raiser Wednesday night by former Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley, developer Ed Roski Jr., and Alana Stewart, the ex-wife of singer Rod Stewart. Greuel will pick up checks at the Hidden Hills home of film producer David Bergstein. And Garcetti will headline a fund-raiser at Santa Monica’s Bergamot Station that features a panel on indie films. Only in L.A.

FULL COVERAGE: L.A.'s race for mayor

In events open to the public, the candidates are taking part in an education forum Wednesday morning in downtown Los Angeles, and James is holding a press conference with County Supervisor Michael Antonovich.

In non-mayoral contests, several races on the Tuesday ballot are increasingly heated.

The Los Angeles Unified School District trustees election has effectively become a referendum on Supt. John Deasy, with his supporters spending millions to make sure he remains the leader of the nation’s second-largest school district.

In the controller’s race, Cary Brazeman and Ron Galperin are accusing Councilman Dennis Zine of double dipping by receiving a police pension and a councilman’s salary. Zine, the favorite in the race, shot back that he had donated a significant amount of his pension to charity.

And Sen. Barbara Boxer weighed in on the city attorney’s race, joining other Democratic leaders in backing Mike Feuer against incumbent Carmen Trutanich.

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Comments, questions or tips on city elections? Tweet me at @LATSeema 

Photo: Wendy Greuel and Kevin James at a mayoral debate at Cal State Los Angeles on Feb. 18. Credit: Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times

Dorner case: LAPD will probe officer discipline process

Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck on Tuesday announced plans to carry out a broad review of the LAPD's procedures for disciplining officers, a move he said was needed to address a vein of discontent among cops that has surfaced in the wake of the Christopher Dorner case.

Dorner, a former LAPD officer who killed four people and injured three others this month in a revenge campaign for being fired from the department, stirred long-simmering anger among former and current officers when he claimed in an online manifesto that he had been railroaded by a discipline system he described as capricious and racially biased.

It is a sentiment that runs deep in the LAPD and Beck said he felt obligated to undertake the review to better understand it and perhaps make changes. He cautioned, however, that he is powerless on his own to tinker with much of the discipline process since it is written into the city's charter, which can only be changed by a popular vote.

Beck voiced confidence that there "are not any inherent flaws" in the discipline system itself, but said the way it is applied from one officer to the next may not be equitable. While he offered few details, Beck indicated the review would include an examination of whether punishments vary based on race, gender and an officer's rank.

As chief, Beck has the authority to suspend officers who are found by internal investigations to have committed misconduct. Officers facing serious allegations often are sent to a Board of Rights -- a quasi-trial in which 2 LAPD commanders and a civilian decide  whether the officer should be fired.

In his manifesto, Dorner allegedly claimed LAPD officials fired him in 2009 in order to protect the career of another officer, whom Dorner had accused of using excessive force on a man. The officer was cleared of wrongdoing and officials concluded Dorner had fabricated the claims. 

He died Feb. 12 from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot as authorities moved in on the Big Bear cabin where he had barricaded himself.

Earlier, Beck appointed a senior advisor to reexamine the investigation the department did into Dorner's allegations and the Board of Rights proceedings that led to his firing. That review, he said, is expected to be completed in coming months. Beck did not give a time frame for the broader review, but said it will take longer as he wants to collect a wide range of opinions on the discipline process from officers and commanders.

In answering reporters' questions, Beck acknowledged an Associated Press report that a handful of LAPD officers have asked the LAPD to review their discipline cases as it is reviewing Dorner's. Beck said the department would do so.

-- Joel Rubin at LAPD headquarters

 Photo: Police Chief Charlie Beck discusses the Dorner case Feb. 19. Credit: Nick Ut / Associated Press

 

 

 

 

LAPD halts man banging head against brick wall; he dies in custody

The Los Angeles Police Department is investigating the death of a Harbor Gateway man who died while in police custody Tuesday morning.

Officers were called to the 20900 block of Denker Avenue about 9:20 a.m. after staff members at a group home reported a resident harming himself.  The 40-year-old man was banging his head against a brick wall, according to witnesses. 

When police arrived, they placed the man in handcuffs to prevent him from further injuring himself, said LAPD spokesman Richard French.  The man was taken to a local hospital, where he died.

"There was no use of force," French said.  "He died from the injuries he sustained."  

The Los Angeles coroner's office has not released the man's name, pending notification of family.

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Map: Approximate location of incident shown in black. Credit: Los Angeles Times Mapping L.A.